


Doing It Right

by simplecoffee



Category: Top Gun (1986)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Trick or Treat: Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 09:28:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21159416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplecoffee/pseuds/simplecoffee
Summary: Mav kisses Ice on a Saturday night.Two days later, he wakes up in hospital.(- Wait, he could have sworn it made a little more sense than that.)





	Doing It Right

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thecarlysutra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecarlysutra/gifts).

Mav kisses Ice on a Saturday night.

Two days later, he wakes up in hospital.

\- Wait, he could have sworn it made a little more sense than that. (If anything at all in his life has ever made sense, this would be it, he thinks. He just has to tell it right.)

-

Mav kisses Ice on a Saturday night. It's on a dare, and they're both very drunk, surrounded by the others who are also very drunk, still high off bringing the Layton home. Later, he won't remember who dares him; only that when Ice shrugs assent, Hollywood calls out after him to make it as _romantic_ as you can, Mav, hey, Mav - which, he likes their graduating class fine, but he also knows they think he hasn't got a romantic bone in his body, and boy, do they sometimes get things _wrong_.

So Mav kisses Ice, and he kisses him right. Slips an arm around his shoulders, lifts a hand to cup his perfect jaw, tilts his head gently as he claims his mouth, trying not to think about how he's wanted to do this for just over eight weeks. Ice tastes of bourbon, which is classy and mixes weirdly with the beer on Mav's tongue, and Ice kisses him back.

When Mav breaks the kiss to the drunken cheers and whoops of the rest of the boys, he grins around the room at them, makes a mock bow, then turns back to Ice, meaning to thank him for putting up with his bullshit. Expects to see amusement, or the usual exasperation, in those cool blue eyes. Instead, he sees a brief, quickly hidden look of utter devastation there, and whispers an apology while the bottle spins again, and barely talks for the rest of the night.

-

He doesn't see Ice the next day, only he can't stop seeing him in his head. The beauty of him, the willingness of him, the overwhelming pain of him. Mav feels like he's seen a ghost, or some kind of truth he was never supposed to know, and he walks a little off-balance all day, like he's caught a little too much sun.

No one else seems to have noticed anything odd last night, and no one else seems to think the kiss was any kind of big deal. No one else sees Ice around, either.

Mav debates going to his quarters to check in on him, and then decides he's done enough stupid things for the time being.

He doesn't _mean_ to get into a bar fight that evening, but it kinda happens anyway. He feels alive at the end of it, in a comfortable, familiar way, not like last night, not like this morning. Not like knowing your crush's eyes look like misery when you kiss them.

-

On Monday, Ice grins at him like nothing happened. Mav's down with that. Mav would rather forget anything happened, too, or that's what he tells himself while he secretly wraps his aching ribs before sparring.

He wasn't counting on Ice getting in a well-placed jab exactly where it hurts most. He definitely wasn't counting on the pain to get so bad he's seeing stars even ten minutes later, gasping for breath even when Ice helps him up to a bench. Or leaning on Ice when he tries to stand from there, and promptly fainting in his arms.

Ice catches him, the second before he blacks out. He remembers that. He remembers thinking _hey, so maybe he doesn't hate me after all._

-

The next time he wakes up, he's in base hospital, with a lot of tubes sticking out of him, and someone's hand clutched in his.

"Goose?" he croaks before opening his eyes, and another hand joins the first, squeezing his gently between them. It takes a moment for him to realize what he's just said, and another to hate himself thoroughly for saying it when someone else is in the room.

Another, yet, to realize he is probably on some seriously good drugs, because -

"Ice? God, Ice, you know I _love you,_ right? You know I'd never hurt you? You _know_ I - Christ, please tell me that's you, you're really blurry but also, like, _really blonde,_ so I'm assuming it's - "

He breaks off to cough surprisingly hard, and Ice says, bizarrely gently, "God, Mav, you're so fucking stupid."

"I only kissed you 'cause I wanted to."

"Are you still worried about _truth or dare?_ Are you still _talking?_ Your fucking lung collapsed, Mitchell. Don't fucking worry about the kiss. It only messed me up because I love you and I thought you'd never love me back."

"I just want a do-over, is all," Mav manages when he catches his breath. "I promise I - wait, did you - _what?"_

He can't exactly blame Ice for laughing, but he does blame him for withdrawing his hand. He makes a sad, bereft noise, and Ice returns it.

"Thanks for," Mav says. "The hand, thanks for it. And for putting up with me. And for being blonde so I recognized you. And, shit, Ice, _of course_ I love you back."

"I am glad to be blonde," Ice says seriously, and Mav thinks he's possibly being made fun of, but he's not entirely sure he cares, as long as it's Ice. "And yes, okay, you can have a do-over, if you remember wanting one when you're out of here."

-

Mav remembers a lot more than people give him credit for, and so Mav kisses Ice for real on a Wednesday.

He kisses him right, and he does it again every day for the rest of their lives.


End file.
